Replacing copper lines: price per line

What happens to the button in the elevator when copper is switched off?

It stops connecting to anyone at all. The same goes for the fire panel and the alarm panel, for the fax, for the card terminal. They have all hung for years on a line nobody in the company thinks about while it works. They will think about it the day it is switched off.

Every line moves across by name

First you find out how many lines you really have: we check the carrier's bills, open the wiring panel and walk the building. Each one gets a name — elevator, fire panel, the accounts fax — because they move across in different ways.

Then the line moves onto a digital circuit and the number stays yours — the one printed on your cards and on the elevator itself. After the switch we test the line at the panel, not on paper: we dial, we listen, we note it in the record.

We disconnect the old line only after a test call has gone through on the new one. Not the other way round.

What replacing one line includes

included: Finding every line from the carrier's bills, the wiring panel and a walk of the building
included: A name and a job for every line: elevator, panel, fax, terminal
included: Choosing the digital circuit that fits what the line does
included: Fitting the device and connecting it to your existing wiring
included: Porting your number so you never have to change it
included: Testing the line at the panel itself: dialled, answered, recorded
included: Battery backup on the circuit for life-safety lines
included: The old line goes only after the new one is tested
included: A written record for every line, for the inspector
paid to the vendor: Hardware and carrier minutes — at the carrier's bill, $0.00 markup

Your price

An ordinary line

$335 per line

A fax, a card terminal or a phone, moved onto a digital circuit.

What the tier includes

included: Everything listed above, on every line

A life-safety line

$560 per line

Elevator and panels: a circuit with battery backup and a tested call.

What the tier includes

included: Everything listed above, on every line
included: Battery backup on the circuit and a test at the panel itself
included: A written record for the inspector

Extras

not included: Porting your number to the new carrier$55 per number
not included: One-off telecom work outside the replacement$112 an hour
not included: Cabling and switching installed for the new circuits$165 per cable drop
not included: The network and the hardware looked after once the work is done$90 per server per month
not included: An IT health check before you subscribe$1,120 up to 25 seats

Questions

Will we lose our number?

No. The number is ported to the new carrier and stays yours — it is printed on your cards, in your contracts and on the elevator itself. Porting costs $55 per number and happens before the old line goes, not after. You will not have to change your phone number.

Why does the elevator line cost more than an ordinary one?

Because it has to work when nothing else does. That circuit goes in with battery backup, and the call is tested at the panel itself and written into the record. A fax line needs neither, so its price is different.

Who answers if the panel cannot get through after the replacement?

We do. That is why the old line goes only after a test call has gone through on the new one and the record says so. The record stays with you: you show it to the inspector instead of explaining out loud that the line seems to work.

We have five lines and we do not know which are still alive.

That is the usual case. The search through the carrier's bills, the wiring panel and a walk of the building is part of the job. Some lines usually turn out to have been paid for over years and connected to nothing — those we simply close, and the carrier's bill gets smaller.

Replacing copper phone lines